Expressions from the Bible

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

Cast the first stone.

Do unto others.

Am I my brother’s keeper?

So many phrases in English come to us from the Bible.

Land of milk and honey.

Root of all evil.

Judgment day.

Those are some of the obvious ones.

But there are also lots of words and phrases that you might be surprised to learn apparently originated in early translations of Greek and Hebrew scripture.

And one of those is bottomless pit.

Oh, I did not know that.

How about that?

It means, of course, something that can’t ever be filled or satisfied.

Right.

A teenage boy in the kitchen.

Right, right, right.

Right?

But the first recorded appearance of this phrase in English is apparently William Tyndall’s 1526 translation of the Bible.

It’s from the book of Revelation, which includes this apocalyptic vision.

And the fifth angel blew, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth.

And to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

Oh.

Isn’t that cool?

Yeah, the Greek there that’s translated is abousos, which means abyss.

But it’s apparently the first recorded instance we have of bottomless pit.

Bottomless pit.

Wow.

Isn’t that cool?

That is amazing.

Guess what?

I have some more of those, and I’m going to share them later in the show.

And these are all from the Bible.

Yeah.

And the Bible, right up there with Shakespeare, is the number one or number two influence on English.

A really big influencer.

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